


Saved, Spared, Life.

by I_can_only_imagine



Series: DitF left me with a lot of feelings okay [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: A Death in the Family - Fandom, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
Genre: Bruce Wayne was thrown in the Lazarus Pit, Family Fluff, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Saved, Post-Batman: A Death In The Family Movie, References to Jane Austen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27054004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/pseuds/I_can_only_imagine
Summary: Jason took a deep breath, grabbed his battered old copy of Pride and Prejudice from the self, and made his way down to the Batcave.The Batcave had always been cold and oppressive to others, but to those in the family it had been a warm safe haven. Jason was hoping he could make it that safe haven for Bruce again.Like Dick, Barbara and Alfred had done for him.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Barbara Gordon & Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd
Series: DitF left me with a lot of feelings okay [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974493
Comments: 6
Kudos: 96





	Saved, Spared, Life.

“Good morning Little Wing,” Dick smiled when he walked into the breakfast nook. It was the same way he greeted Jason every morning when he was in Gotham, and Jason wouldn’t want it any other way. Because his brother was smiling again. His brother was smiling at  _ him _ again. And that was all he could ask for.

“Morning Dickie,” Jason smiled back. “Are you heading back out to Bulhaven tonight?”

“Not tonight,” Dick said. He made his cup of coffee, the same he made it every morning. Two sugars, a little cream. He had always teased Jason for taking his coffee with more sugar and cream than was really necessary, but really Jason just prefered tea.

“There’s a case I’m following a lead on out here, so I figured I would head out tomorrow night instead, after patrol,” he sat down across from Jason and smiled again, this time a little more strained. “What do you have planned for today?”

“I’ll probably just be up in the library or in the Batcave,” Jason shrugged.

“I can’t imagine being stuck in this house twenty-four seven,” Dick shook his head.

“That’s because you’re a people person,” Jason shrugged. “I’ve always prefered the quiet. The quiet is what I need anyways.”

With that dick’s smile finally fell and he sighed, “Just tell us if you ever feel too lonely, okay? Babs and I are always here for you when you need us.”

“I know,” Jason nodded. “I promise, if I need anything, I’ll go to you.”

They sat like that in silence for a little while until Alfred made his way into the kitchen.

“Master Richard, I thought you would still be asleep,” Alfred said in way of a greeting as he made his way to the fridge. Jason stood from the breakfast nook and started to help Alfred on the prep for breakfast. Just like he did every morning.

“I’ll head up after breakfast,” Dick waved away his worry. “It’s hard getting back on a semi regular sleep schedule after so long.

“Don’t be dramatic, it was only a year,” Jason rolled his eyes.

“A year and counting,” Dick said. “Once this is all over, I can’t wait to never be Batman again. I’ll stick with Nightwing, thank you very much.”

“How brave of you,” Jason teased, ducking the hand Dick tried to ruffle his hair with.

“You know, I think I liked you better when you refused to talk to me,” Dick said just as playful. They all knew he didn’t mean it. Dick had always prefered them talking over cold silence.

“You know you two can just say you love each other instead of pulling each other’s leg,” Barbara said. All attention was brought to the doorway where she was beaming at them from with a certain friend by her side.

“Tim, you’re back from your boarding school,” Jason said with a wide smile.

Timothy Drake. The kid had entered their lives not long after Talia had revealed what she had done to Jason on the roof of Wayne enterprise. Funny enough, he had appeared trying to reveal the same thing Talia had. He had spent months compiling evidence, making sure there was no room for deniability when he came to them.

They had all known the moment Tim started talking that he was genius enough to go against the best of them. There was no way they could lie to him, so they told him everything he hadn’t already known or guessed. He became a part of the family so quickly you would think he were a speedster, and he and Jason had gotten along like tape and glue.

“Summer break is in,” Tim said with a one shouldered shrug. They stood there for a moment just grinning at each other before Tim darted forward to hug him.

“Miss me?” Jason asked, hugging him back.

“You have no idea,” Tim laughed. “Why can’t people like you go to my dumb school?”

“Hate to break it to you Timber, but there are no people like me.”

“As much as I hate to break up this moment,” Alfred said. “I’m afraid I’ll have to steal Master Jason back for making breakfast, lest we all go hungry.”

“Are you staying for breakfast?” Jason asked Tim as he turend back to the prep he had been working on.

“My parents said I could stay to eat but I have to leave right after,” Tim said. “My mother wants to drag me to one of her brunches. She said I need to socialize with more people of my status.”

“And the shut in son of Bruce Wayne doesn’t cut it,” Jason said, but there was no heat to his words. It was a fact they had to accept early on in their friendship that Tim’s parents would never approve of him spending time with Jason.

They didn’t know the full story, which was lucky for them. If they had known the real reason Jason couldn’t leave Wayne Manor, they wouldn’t have let Tim within a five mile radius of any of them, much less him.

But the Drakes were given the same cover story the rest of the world had.

One year ago, on April 27th, fourteen year old Jason Wayne-Todd had been captured by terrorists. When Bruce Wayne tried to intervene and save his son without a ransom, Bruce had ended up killed in an explosion. Little had they known that the body recovered from the ashes was not really Bruce’s but one of the kidnappers who looked enough like him for them to make the mistake. The real Bruce Wayne had been stuck in Ethiopia, lost and with no memories. Jason had been overcome by grief and shut himself away in Wayne Manor for the last year with only his older brother, the police commissioner's daughter, and the family butler as his company. When they found Bruce, it had only given him yet another reason to stay away from the limelight and take more time to heal with his family as they tried to recover Bruce’s memories.

Bruce had always taught them to stick as close to the truth as they could, and that was the closest they could get. In reality, Jason was wearing an ankle monitor with a tracker inside it and a proximity alarm that prevented him from leaving the grounds of the manor. And Bruce was stuck in a straight jacket in a cell inside the Batcave right under their feet, and Jason had taken it upon himself to dedicate most of his time to trying to heal his father.

“I came by to drop off some books for you too,” Tim said. “I know you like the classics, but a lot of these looked like something you would enjoy.”

When Jason turned to see what books Tim was talking about, he found that he had completely missed Tim bringing in a full box of books. Or more Barbara brought in the box on her lap, but still it was there and he had missed it in his joy of seeing his friend again.

“Holy crap Tim,” Jason grinned.

“Language.”

“Sorry Alfie.”

“I know right,” Tim laughed. “I went to this old bookstore in the city my parents sent me to school in and I just couldn’t stop. All of them sounded so interesting, and then the shop owner started suggesting some based on them…”

“I’m sure Jay will burn through them in a week,” Dick said.

“I give it two days,” Barbara countered.

“You’re on.”

“What have I said about making bets before breakfast,” Alfred said.

“Sorry Alfred, you know we can’t help ourselves,” Dick said.

“I’m sure. Master Jason, would you mind tending to the waffles,” Alfred said. Despite him talking to Jason, he was giving Tim a very pointed look that made Tim’s smile turn sheepish. The poor thing was nowhere near as good at hiding his distaste for Alfred’s waffles than the rest of them. They had long since stopped trying to figure out what made the waffles so bad when the rest of his food was like heaven and just had Jason make the waffles instead, but Alfred was still clearly soare on the topic.

“Sure Alfie,” Jason shook his head and moved over to where the ingredients had already been laid out for him. As he passed, he popped up onto his tip toes for just as second to place a kiss on Alfred’s cheek before getting to work.

They ate breakfast as a family, laughing and joking, and smiling again just like they did every other morning. Then Tim left to go home, Dick went up to bed, and the commissioner came by to pick Barbara up and drive her to work. Alfred set about to work, and Jason was left alone to do whatever until dinner when they would all, besides Tim, come together again with the addition of Commissioner Gordon and Leslie.

Jason started his free time by putting away all the new books Tim had gotten him on his personal book shelf in his room. There were enough books to fill a full self over his bed, and he couldn’t help but smile at how his personal collection was shaping up. It had only been two years since Bruce built it for him, and considering the amount of time he had been gone and neglecting his hobbies, it was impressive how much the shelves had been filled.

He ran his fingers over the carving Bruce had left on the left side of the bookshelf that faced his window. A message that read “for my beloved son -Bruce” with a carving of a sparrow underneath.

Jason took a deep breath, grabbed his battered old copy of Pride and Prejudice from the self beside the carving, and made his way down to the Batcave.

The Batcave had always been cold and oppressive to others, but to those in the family it had been a warm safe haven. Jason was hoping he could make it that safe haven for Bruce again, Like Dick, Barbara and Alfred had done for him.

“Morning,” Jason said as he stepped into the room with the holding cell. Bruce didn’t look at him. He never did. He didn’t mind.

“I brought you breakfast,” Jason continued. He tucked his book under his arm and balanced the food tray in one hand while he pulled out the key around his neck with the other. They hadn’t felt the need to add biometrics or anything fancy to the cell since they were the only ones who could get in and out. Only two of them actually had a key to the cell, and Jason and Alfred bother were trained fighters. There was no way anyone could ever get the keys that hung around their necks.

Jason pulled the door shut and sat down in the chair beside Bruce’s bed. Everything in the cell was bolted down with plush coverings, so there was no table for him to set the tray or book on. The book ended up on the floor while he rested the tray in his lap.

“You know I can’t feed you if you refuse to open your mouth,” Jason sighed after a few minutes and several futile attempts to feed Bruce. “Come on B. You know you get cranky when you haven’t eaten and you already refused to eat dinner last night. If you keep this up Alfred will start force feeding you again.”

Something in his words broke through and Bruce opened his mouth. Jason couldn’t help smiling, the fact that Bruce was cooperating more and more every day was proof that he was getting better. At least he hoped it was proof he was getting better.

When he was finished Jason sat the tray outside the cell and picked up the book to start reading.

He had tried every one of Bruce’s favorite books up to that point. Every day he would come in with a new book and read it aloud like Bruce used to do for him when he was sick or on bed rest, and would only leave the cell again when he had finished the book. When he had gotten through Bruce’s favorites he had moved on to Alfred’s that he used to read him, but the night before Alfred had suggested he try Pride and Prejudice.

“But Bruce isn’t a fan of Jane Austen,” Jason had said. Alfred had just smiled and shook his head before going back to washing the dishes from dinner.

Jason flipped to the first page and started reading the tale of Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and their friends and family.

He only made it a few chapters in before nostalgic memories tried to drown him and he had to put the dook down and close his eyes, curling in on himself, and taking deep, steady breaths.

His mother reading to him when he was little was the first memory to crash in without his permission. Her sweet voice, her black curls, the way she laughed like she would never laugh again when Jason said something she found funny.

She had always loved Jane Austen, and Jason knew it was where he had gotten his own passion for the classics. Catherine had grown up believing she would have an Austen worthy romance and instead got stuck with a sleazy criminal who got offed by Two Face in prison, and a sick kid who wasn’t even her own. She had told Jason how much she wished for him to live a life like Elizabeth Bennet.

When he was adopted by Bruce, he was fooled into thinking that maybe he could grant his mother’s wish. He was an heir of the Wayne fortune along with Dick, and learning to live in high society had been a piece of cake after growing up on Austen. He would have the financial and education security needed to spend time looking for real, true love.

He had told Bruce all about that and Bruce had laughed and said that he could only hope Jason could find that love he was looking for, preferably after he finished college and found himself. After that, every time Jason was stuck to bed rest after an injury or when he got sick, Bruce would sit by his bed and read him Jane Austen.

He had wished more than anything while he was on bedrest before the funeral that he would open his eyes and Bruce would be there reading to him again. Every time he opened his eyes though, it was Alfred, or Dick, or Barbara, or no one at all. He didn’t let any of them read to him. He wanted Bruce, and Bruce was gone, so he wanted no one.

“Sorry,” Jason said after taking a deep breath and sitting back up. He opened the book again and blinked away the tears until his eyes would focus on the page. He needed to focus on happy memories, not what had happened. “Sorry, where were we? Right…”

He took another shaky breath and started reading off the line he had been on again, “There are… there are few people who… sorry. There are few people whom I really love-”

His voice broke and he couldn’t stop.

Barbara had warned him about this. The unexpected mood swings, the inability to suppress the worst parts, the way it would often feel like everything was crumbling apart. He had finally stopped having black out moments, but those moments had been replaced by complete breakdowns that he couldn’t stop or control.

“I’m sorry,” Jason said again through his tears. He wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for, but at least he had figured out what he was crying for. This line was one he had thought of while his rampage went on. It had been one that Bruce always told him was so wrong. How the more you see of the world, the more good you see.

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense,” by the time the quote was finished Jason was sure his eyes were bulging from his head from them being open so wide. His breath had caught in his chest after the first line, and he wasn’t sure he could ever breath again,

Slowly Jason looked up from where he had curled in on himself again to where Bruce was sitting on his bed, blue eyes meeting his, focused for the first time.

“Ridiculous,” Bruce said. “Inconsistency in human character is what makes the world a place worth living in. If we were all the same there wouldn’t be a point. If all of us were completely good it would be unbalanced.”

“Dad,” Jason sobebd, a wide smile growing on his face.

“Son,” Bruce smiled in turn. Before anything else could be said, Jason launched himself from the chair and wrapped his arms around Bruce, crying and laughing into his shoulder.

Of course there was no fix all to the effects of the Lazarus Pit.There would be relapses, and episodes, and nightmares. It wasn’t going to be easy, and Batman and Robin wouldn’t be returning to the fold for a while, nor would Bruce and Jason. But at least now they had a chance. A chance they never thought they would have again.

This wasn’t the same as every other morning, and Jason couldn’t be happier.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments give me life so if you liked the story feel free to leave some!  
> Come find me over @what-if-i-imagine on tumblr where my asks, prompts, and requests are always open!


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